Fizzing
by chocolatebearturk
Summary: ABANDONED They say that if your heart skips a beat, you die. He must've died a hundred times over, just being with her. L/Q
1. Dumped

**Hello, readers! I am the Poet on the Run, and you have found my first online fanfiction! How exciting! I really hope you enjoy my fanfiction, which is based on the recent episode of Zoey 101. I should've warned you in the summary, but there are some SPOILERS in this story. Sorry. Actually, I have the exact dialogue from the episode here, which takes up a lot of this chapter. But things will be getting much better, for sure! So please, have fun reading, and maybe leave a review when you're done?**

Logan nearly did a double take and wrecked on his Jet-X. That girl back there had looked just like Quinn. But it couldn't have been her. Quinn never wore that much make-up, or clothes like that. And she was almost blind without her glasses. But, just to be sure, Logan turned around for a better look.

Close up, he found it _was_ Quinn. But... why was she dressed like that? And all that make-up. How often had she talked about the evils of the stuff?

Logan stopped the Jet-X when he saw how upset she looked. Her face was blotchy under the excessive powders and creams. There were streaks running under the corners of her eyes. Her nose was red, too. She'd been crying. Logan got off his Jet-X and took off his helmet.

"What's the problem?"

Quinn looked up and scowled when she saw him standing over her. "Nothing, Logan. Just... keep riding."

"You been crying?" he said as he sat down next to her. When she didn't answer he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Quinn exclaimed, moving her gaze away from his face.

Logan didn't believe her. "C'mon. Talk to me."

Quinn swung her head around to look at him. Her brown eyes seemed to search his, as though there was something she needed to see before she continued. She must've found it, since she turned to face him. "...Mark broke up with me."

"Oh, yeah, I heard you got dumped." Logan said without thinking. Catching Quinn's eye, he added, "Ah, broken up with."

It seemed that Quinn chose to ignore his folly, for she merely continued, with understandable bitterness, "Yeah, after two years!"

"Why'd he dump... break up with you?" Logan asked, correcting himself in the middle of his sentence.

Quinn sniffed and didn't meet his eyes for a moment. "'Cause he fell for Brooke Margolin."

"Ooh, she's hot." Logan said without thinking as a mental picture of the girl came to him. Then he realized that he was talking to Quinn. Just-dumped-for-Brooke Quinn. He scrambled to save himself, "...ish. Hot-ish"

The hurt on Quinn's face was evident. She actually had to hide her face for a moment so she wouldn't cry.

_How heartless am I?_ Logan thought with an inward groan.

There were a few very long minutes of silence. After a while it seemed Quinn had put Logan's unintentionally hurtful words aside, for she looked back at him.

"I mean, I guess I can't be mad at Mark." Quinn said in a defeated voice. Logan could practically hear her thoughts.

_I can't blame Mark for liking Brooke. Even Logan thinks she's hot. I never even had a chance..._

"Well," Logan said. "If it makes you feel any better, I think Mark's an idiot."

"Yeah, yeah, I know you hate him." Quinn said as she rolled her eyes.

"I don't hate him." Logan said, which was a lie. He certainly hated Mark now. After all, he'd just hurt one of his friends in one of the worst ways possible. "I mean, he's an idiot for breaking up with you."

Quinn tucked a strand of her long, recently straightened brown hair behind her ear. "Why do you say that?"

"I don't know," he said, searching for the right words. "I mean-- look, we all know you're weird."

Quinn shook her head, a disbelieving look on her face. Logan reached out and touched her arm to get her attention again. It was a small gesture, barely lasting a second, but it sent a fizzing feeling up his arm.

"But you're smart, you're pretty, and you're kinda fun." he finished.

"Thanks," Quinn said, a bit sarcastically.

"Sure," Logan said, not altogether comfortably. "And, uh, why are you dressed like that?"

Quinn looked down at the too-small burgundy top and very short jean skirt. She gave a self-derisive laugh. "I was trying to compete with Brooke."

"Well, don't." Logan told her. She looked shocked for a moment. Logan looked down at the bench between them and picked up her glasses. He put them on for her. "Hey. There's Quinn."

Quinn smiled, and so did he. And then... It was almost like they were opposite magnets. Their eyes met and they were just slowly dragged toward each other, as though by some sort of outside force. Their lips met and suddenly Logan felt a tingling in the bottom of his stomach. The sort of feeling you get when you're nervous. But it was a good feeling, too. It lasted only a moment, but it was the best feeling he'd ever had.

And then there was a thundering in the distance and the two broke apart as though shocked with electricity. As Logan watched Michael and Zoey ride by on a horse, he felt as though he had indeed stuck a hairpin in a light socket. A painless pain, a fizzing, an electricity was running through his veins at incredible speed. It was the feeling he'd gotten from touching her before.

"Weirdest day, _ever_." It was all he could manage to say.

"Uh-huh." Quinn replied.

They looked at each other, realizing what had just happened with a jolt. They moved to opposite sides of the bench, each unable to face the other. It was a _very_ long time before either of them did anything but stare off into space.

Finally, Logan spoke." Quinn, look--"

"It's okay." she interrupted, still unable to look at him. "I know you didn't really mean it, Logan. It's just a little kiss. No big deal."

"No, Quinn, I--" he began, not wanting her to think he didn't mean it.

"I've gotta go. I'll see you later, okay?" she said. But she didn't wait for an answer. She began walking away. Fast. And, when Logan knew she thought he'd stopped watching, she began to run as fast as she could back to her dorm.

And Logan just sat there, trying to figure out what to do.

**Aww, poor Logan! Don't worry too much, though. I'm sure things will get better for him. As for you, did you enjoy your read? Let me know! Tell me what I can do better, or just say hi! On a sad note, I may not be able to update for a while. But I'll be writing the whole time! See ya next chapter!**


	2. Shower

**Hey! By some miracle (I blame female genetics and the sympathy of my mother) I'm updating today! Isn't that great? This is the update you've been anticipating! I really hope you like it, as I've spent the past few days working on getting it just right. So, here you are!**

The first thing Quinn did when she got back to her dorm was grab a change of clothes and lock herself in the adjoining bathroom. There was a familiarity, a normalcy, about the place that seemed to calm her racing heart. She let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

For a while Quinn stared at her reflection, looking at the make-up that had gone on that morning in hopes of winning back Mark's heart. Something in her stomach clinched and she felt sick. With an almost angry look at herself, Quinn began to take off the make-up. Thankfully, the action left little room for thought, as she had to concentrate to remember how to get the stuff off.

Somehow, forcibly removing the make-up from her face made her feel better, even as she rubbed her eyes raw to free her lashes of water-proof mascara. Looking at her own slightly pink face when she was done was definitely worth it. She smiled weakly.

Then she turned on the shower to wash her long, straight hair and return it to its usual curly state. When she finally got the water to the right temperature she peeled off the too-small clothes, actually restoring some blood circulation, and hopped into the shower.

Immediately, she wet her hair and began to shampoo it, hoping the action would distract her. Unfortunately, the act of washing her hair was much more practiced than that of removing make-up, which left her mind to wander.

And, given the freedom, her thoughts went back to the bench, the one place she was trying to avoid thinking about. Quinn knew she couldn't avoid it forever. Thinking about what happened. But she could darn well try! She didn't _want_ to think about the bench. She didn't _want_ to think about Logan. She didn't _want_ to think about any of that! And, most of all, she didn't want to think about the kiss.

But... when Logan touched her... it was like... like sticking a hairpin in an outlet. That painless pain, that electric shock, that _fizzing_ feeling you get. There were a million ways to describe it. Fizzing. Pins and needles. Bubbling. The butterflies. Electric shock. But fizzing seemed best. Like when you pour a soda out of the can. It fizzes at first, giving you that weird foam, and then you've got the teeny little bubbles of carbon dioxide that come up afterward, like an aftershock. Or a flashback. Fizzing.

And she got that feeling when he touched her. Logan. Or when he spoke to her. Or looked at her. Or came within ten feet of her. Fizzing. She never got that with Mark.

Of course, that wasn't _new_. She'd been bubbling over with love for Logan practically since the day they met, much to her displeasure. Logan was arrogant and irresponsible. He was handsome and he knew it, which made him full of himself. He was selfish, loyal, charming, nice, caring, gentle...

And Quinn practically hated herself for liking him.

_I mean, how pathetic am I? It's so cliche it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, _Quinn thought bitterly._ The geek falls for the jock. Cinderella and Prince Charming. Only, Prince Charming doesn't know Cindy's in love with him and goes out with step-sister after step-sister until Cindy's finally disillusioned and sees him for the jerk he is-- and is still in love with him!_

Of course, to make matters worse, Quinn had decided that people were getting suspicious of her, which they weren't, so she'd had to throw them off the fact that she worshiped the ground Logan walked on. To do this, she'd thrown herself headlong into a relationship with Mark. Problem was, she fell for him. What had started as a way to free herself from Logan ended up a two-year-long relationship she didn't want to lose.

That she'd just lost.

Quinn took a shuddering breath.

_No_, she thought. _I will _not_ cry. Not again. Never again._

She squinted her eyes shut and stepped directly under the shower so that the water ran rivers over her face and neck. That way she wouldn't know.

She wouldn't know if it was water or tears running down her cheeks.

There was a knock at the door that startled Quinn out of her thoughts.

"Quinn? Quinn, are you alright?" It was Lola. She and Zoey were always there to ruin her dramatic moment.

But this time... she was glad.

* * *

"Oh, hey, Zoey." Lola said when her friend came in the door, looking zombie-like after her classes. "You okay?" 

"Yeah," Zoey groaned, dropping her bag neatly on the floor by her bed. She flopped down on the aforementioned bed with a moan of relief. "Ooh, I'm still sore from that horse..."

"The one that was following Michael around school?" Lola asked with interest, producing a cold water bottle from seemingly nowhere for Zoey. It seemed that no one ever noticed the mini fridge in the corner...

"How do you--?" Zoey began to ask as she unscrewed the top of the water bottle.

"I just know these things." Lola answered.

"Okay, then..." Zoey said, rolling her eyes in jest. The two smiled at each other. "Hey, where's Quinn?"

"I think she's trying to drown herself in the shower." Lola said, glancing at the door separating their dorm room from the adjoining bath, currently locked. "Or get all that goo off her head. Either way, I wish she'd hurry up. I have to go."

"Go down the hall." Zoey said reproachfully.

"That's too far away!" Lola whined.

The bathroom door opened then. Quinn stepped out with her face bare and her hair wet and in a long braid down her back. She was wearing an old, stretched out sweater and a baggy-looking pair of jeans. She looked more Quinn at that moment than any other.

"Thank god!" Lola muttered, getting to her feet with un-Lola-ish speed. "'Excuse me!"

She brushed past Quinn and let herself into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Zoey and Quinn exchanged looks, and then burst into giggles.

"Come here," Zoey said, holding out her arms to her friend. Quinn went over to receive her hug. "How did things go with Mark?"

"Ah, not so good." Quinn said with a sniff and a rueful grin. "You were right."

"Doesn't matter if I'm right," Zoey told her. "Are you okay?"

"Not so good," Quinn admitted, brushing away a bit of hair escaped from her braid. "But I'll start feeling better eventually. There's other guys out there and all that jazz. The cliche stuff."

"The kind that leaves a bad taste in your mouth." Zoey said, and Quinn nodded, smiling weakly.

"I'm, ah, I'm going to take a nap." Quinn said. "Just, you know, until bedtime. Then I can go to sleep and try to get over this."

"You don't get over it," Zoey said with feeling. "You get past it."

Quinn nodded. Then she got under the covers of her bed and went to sleep.

When Lola came out of the bathroom, Zoey told her about what Quinn had said.

"And now she's napping!" Zoey said anxiously. "You know what that means!"

Lola's eyes rested on Quinn's sleeping figure. "Something is definitely wrong."

**That's it for now! Maybe next chapter I'll give you a dream sequence. Let me know what you think of it! I'd like to give some thanks to the people who reviewed me, such as shmibby, who was the first review EVOR of my story. Thanks to bookworm3, Abster1, Ms. HellFire 4590, and maximumfan for their constructive criticism. And thanks to the eight other people who reviewed my first chapter! Really! I am AMAZED at the amount of reviews I got in just the few days I've had this story up. Let's hope for even more!**

**Till the next chapter,**

**Poet on the Run**


	3. Help

**Well, I am supremely excited! This chapter, without author's notes, is 2031 words long! How AWESOME is that? I've been told that my other chapters aren't quite long enough, so, hopefully, they'll keep getting longer. I want to thank all the people who've reviewed me once again. Your criticism helps this story become better and better. Now we can return to Logan and see what he's been thinking about. And we get a surprise guest at the end of the chapter! Wonder who it is? -laughs- Please, enjoy!**

It was dark.

He could hear Michael snoring across the room.

Logan turned over, trying to clear his mind for sleep. He couldn't remember a time when there'd been so much on his mind...

But that wasn't true. He could remember plenty of times. Most of them having to do with a certain brown-eyed girl...

Logan rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling a few feet above him. He counted sheep to a hundred and still didn't fall asleep.

He could hear James' soft, regular breathing below him as he slept in Chase's old bunk.

Chase... How long was it before he could come back? Another couple months at the least. And what would happen when Chase got home?

James would have to find a new pair of roommates, obviously. And he and Zoey would stop dating... And Zoey and Chase would finally, _finally_, get together.

And then what..?

Logan looked at the clock. It read 2:27 am.

He groaned and turned over again. Why couldn't he sleep?

Finally, he gave up. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and quietly got down, so as not to wake James the light sleeper. Michael, however, was anything but. Logan looked at his friend in amusement as sounds similar to that of a caged bear erupted from the area where his face was pressed into his pillow. His heavy sleeping must have been a developed immunity to his own thunderous snores.

Michael grunted. "Sparky..."

_Sparky?_ Logan thought in confusion, staring at his sleeping friend. _Oh, that dumb horse he was blubbering about._

"Lola..." Michael muttered thinckly. "How would you... like to go..."

His voice trailed off before he finished the sentence, but Logan didn't need to hear the rest.

_Lola?_ Logan thought. He was in shock. _Michael and... Lola?_

After a moment it struck him that it wasn't any stranger than him and Quinn.

_But... I'm not thinking about Quinn like that... Am I?_ Logan asked himself. Scary thing was, he wasn't so sure of the answer.

* * *

_Quinn sat up in her bed. She was still wearing her sweater. Still had her hair in a braid. The room was empty. Something was wrong. There was sunlight streaming into the room, although Quinn was sure she'd just lain down. But... she'd been under the covers then..._

_"Zoey?" she called timidly. "Lola?"_

_No one answered._

_She felt uneasy. Quinn left the room in search of fresh air. For a while it seemed like she was merely wandering without purpose. Eventually, though, she recognised where her feet were taking her. She tried to go in a different direction, anywhere but _THAT_ place. But it was no use. She was stuck on some kind of track and it was leading her directly to where she didn't want to be._

_And then she saw him. He was just sitting there on the bench, watching her coming, looking exactly as she had left him. Quinn felt something in her stomach flutter. She came to a stop in front of him. He stood up._

_"Hi," she said shyly._

_"Hi," Logan said back._

_An uncomfortable silence found its way between them._

_"I, um, I'm sorry about before," Quinn said quietly, somehow unable to meet Logan's eyes. "I'm just... really confused and hurt. And what happened scared me. So, um, sorry."_

_Logan didn't say anything. When Quinn looked up, she found him very close. She wanted to back away and couldn't. She wanted to say something but the words seemed to stick in her throat. All she could do was watch as he came closer to her._

_And then, just like before, there seemed to be a magnetic force between them. Suddenly, Logan's lips were pressed firmly over hers. She felt his hands on her face, her eyes fluttered closed. For long, long moments the kiss lasted, until Logan slowly pulled away._

_"Well," he said, stretching as though a boring class had just ended. "I'd better get going."_

_"What..?" Quinn said, confused. Logan smiled sympathetically, like she was too slow to understand what had just happened._

_"You didn't think that kiss _meant_ something, did you?" Logan said with a patronising air. "I thought you were smarter than that, Quinn."_

_"Huh?" Quinn replied blankly, slowly beginning to understand. Slowly beginning to fall apart._

_"It was a sympathy thing. I didn't really mean anything by it." Logan said, his voice still patronising as he looked down at her. Quinn tore her gaze from his face. She couldn't let him see her cry. "I mean, you weren't enough for Mark. How could you even fantasize about being in the same league as me?"_

_Quinn nodded without realizing what she was doing. She turned jerkily and started walking away._

Quinn sat up very suddenly, the comforter restricting her movement. She blinked and looked around. The world was very blurry and she realized she didn't have her glasses on. She put them on and then looked anxiously around the room.

Lola and Zoey were sleeping in their beds, Lola snoring lightly and Zoey breathing deep and slow.

Quinn sighed with relief and took off her glasses again. It was then that the memory of her dream hit her. She inhaled sharply, laying back on her bed. Tears stung her eyes. She blinked them back and turned over.

She went to sleep.

* * *

Logan was sitting by the fountains, which were turned off for the night. 

He'd gone out for some fresh air. He was deep in thought. Or, more accurately, deep in non-thought. He'd been barely able to put a coherent thought together since that afternoon. He wasn't thinking at all, but there was a restless buzz at the edges of his mind, phantom images that wouldn't go away. Songs that repeated lines over and over like a broken record. It was all a jumble and he just didn't know what to do!

He stared off into space for the longest time before a thought finally struck him.

He fumbled with cold fingers for his cell phone. The time was 2:49 am. If Logan was right, it would be around 10:49 am for him. Logan hoped to god he wasn't in class.

Logan called Chase.

"Hello?" answered a familiar voice.

Logan let out a breath. "Hey, Chase. It's Logan."

"Logan?" There was a pause. "What the heck are you doing concious? It's three in the morning over there!"

"I know!" Logan said. "I.. Wait, you're not in class are you?"

"No," Chase said. "I've got a free period right now. Now why'd you call?"

"I couldn't sleep." Logan said evasively. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

"You never had that problem when I was there." Chase said sarcastically.

Logan bit back a groan and made up his mind. He had to go through with this. Which meant he couldn't afford to get Chase mad just now. "Chase, I hate to admit this... but I need some help."

There was a pause on the other end.

"You need help? The great Logan Reese is actually asking for my help?" Chase said in his best teasing voice.

"Yes, I, the magnificent Logan Reese. need your help." Logan said with an agitated sigh, "Chase, this is important. You can't tell anyone about this. Not even Zoey."

"Hey, this is me we're talking about. What goes in the vault never comes out." Chase said.

"Okay..." Logan said, and proceeded to tell him the whole story.

There was silence for a very long time on the other end when Logan had finished. He was just beginning to think the call had been dropped when Chase spoke again.

"You kissed Quinn." he said slowly.

"Yeah." Logan said.

"You _kissed_ her." Chase repeated.

"Uh-huh." Logan said sheepishly.

"You kissed _Quinn_."

"Yes..."

"You kissed--"

"Yes, I kissed Quinn!!" Logan exclaimed in agitation. "I, Logan, kissed Quinn. Quinn Pensky. Quinn with the Quinnventions. Quinn with the glasses. Now what do I _do_ about it?!"

"What do you think you should do about it?" Chase asked.

"What? I dunno. Was hoping you would." Logan said, starting to panic a little. What if Chase couldn't help him? What would he do then?

"How did you feel when you kissed her?" Chase said.

Logan thought for a moment. "I dunno. It was sort of... fluttery. Like you feel when you're nervous. But it was a good feeling, too. It was kinda like a... fizzing. When you get shocked or something. It hurts and it doesn't, ya know?"

He heard Chase sigh.

"Okay... Tell me Quinn's schedule for Thursday."

"Advanced Physics, World History, Calculus, and Photography. She has fourth lunch." Logan recited without having to think.

_What the..?_ he thought. _How did I know all that?_

"And now you're wondering how you could mindlessly recite her entire schedule." Chase said blandly. "Tell me, Logan. What's Einstein's theory of relativity?"

"Okay, what is this?!" Logan asked angrily. "I didn't call you to play Twenty Questions!"

"Just answer the question, please." Chase said. "This will all make sense in a minute."

"It's E equals MC squared, idiot!" Logan burst out. And then, suddenly, he wasn't listening to Chase anymore.

_"What's the relativity thing the smart guy made up again?" he asked as he filled out his homework worksheet._

_"It's E equals MC squared, Logan." Quinn sighed. She smiled, though. "How many times do I have to tell you?"_

_"As many as it takes for me not to forget." Logan said sourly. But he filled in the answer. He closed his eyes, then opened them to look at her again. His voice was apologetic as he said, "Sorry. I just really hate to ask for your help."_

_Quinn's smile became wider. "It's okay. I know you, Logan."_

"Logan? Logan, are you listening?" Chase asked, breaking him out of his memory.

"Sorry." Logan said. "What's the verdict, doctor?"

"You're in love with Quinn." Chase said matter-of-factly.

"I'm what?!" Logan exclaimed.

"In love with Quinn. Don't sound so shocked," Chase said with a little laugh. "That's why you called me. You were afraid to admit it to yourself and you needed someone to tell you. All that 'secret' tutoring with Quinn helped, after all."

"I'm not going to ask how you know that." Logan said. He sighed. This was _not_ going as he had hoped. He glanced around anxiously. "So... love, huh? Not like?"

"Yep. You're in so deep there's no way out." Chase said brightly. He sobered, however, when he gave Logan the long-awaited advice. "But don't wait to tell her like I did with Zoey, man. Or else you'll be rooming with me and Quinn'll have her own James."

"Thanks, Chase." Logan said. "I'll be sure to do that."

He wasn't nearly as confident as he sounded, but he owed it to Chase to say it.

"I've gotta go if I want to be alive when I wake up tomorrow." Logan said, throwing in a yawn for Chase's benefit. It turned into a real one halfway through.

"Okay, then." Chase said, and Logan could hear the grin on his voice. "Talk to ya soon!"

"Bye." Logan closed the cell phone. He sighed a long, weary sigh. "Love. I'm in love with Quinn Pensky."

Somehow, it didn't sound quite so strange as it might've half and hour ago.

Logan got up and walked away.

* * *

Chase hung up the phone and sat back, exhaling slowly as he turned over what he'd just heard in his head. He glanced at the clock. He still had some time before his next class started. 

His eyes went back to the screen of his laptop, or, more importantly, the blonde girl he had for his wallpaper. He pondered whether he should do what he was about to do.

He clicked a link on his desktop and began to type:

_Hey Zoe,_

_How're you today? I hope the weather's nice, since all I seem to be getting is more grey skies..._

_I just got the strangest call..._

Sure, their conversation had gone into the vault. But what Logan didn't know was that the vault had been opened for one person and one person only.

And besides, he needed to make sure Logan didn't make the same mistakes he had.

Chase continued to type.

**Well, how'd you like your surprise guest? Surprised? I sure hope so! I thought, since we see so little of him in the show, I'd throw him in here for some light CZ, and to give Logan some advice. I mean, isn't he just the perfect person to ask about this sort of thing? Besides, I'm not fond of James. -sticks out tongue at James- Zoey stealer! But he'll become a bit more important later. Oooh, clues for you. Hee hee! Hope you had fun reading, and please, tell me what you think. **

Till next chapter,  
Poet on the Run 


	4. Denialville

**Okay, I know I've been gone for a REALLY long time, but I thought you guys deserved some Thanksgiving love. I really have to be thankful that I've got such KIND, FORGIVING readers. Okay, okay!! Put down the pitchforks! Enjoy the chapter!**

Quinn's head seemed to have its own pulse, throbbing painfully out of time with the more distant beat of her heart. Light and sound were her enemies now, but, thankfully, enemies she knew how to handle.

She lay under a plethora of blankets; a barrier between herself and the world. A sleep mask stolen from Lola covered her eyes and a pair of sound-blocking earphones rested heavily on her head. She could do nothing about the nausea at the moment, but she vowed upon her claim to science that she'd put her mind to the task the minute she stopped dying. Right now, though, even thinking hurt. She couldn't move or speak. If she could just remain perfectly still...

She fell into a dreamless state of unconciousness as her body gave up. She would not wake until the pain was gone. In the meanwhile, she wouldn't be affected by it.

By ANY of it.

So her body started the waiting game, until her migraine was no more.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"I've got BIG news!" Zoey exclaimed, running into the student lounge with her pink PearWorks computer open in her hands. She placed herself stragetically in front of the TV, her face full of barely contained excitement.

Michael, Lola and James stared at her for a long moment. It became clear to them that Zoey was waiting to be prompted. Lola opened her mouth to speak, but Michael beat her to it.

"Well, woman?!" he said impatiently. Lola smacked him on the shoulder. He turned to her. "What? I'm missing my show!"

"Hush!" Lola said with a glare. Michael fell silent and she turned her eyes back to Zoey. "What's the big news?"

Zoey's excited grin grew even wider than before. She looked around, then said, "Logan is in love with Quinn!"

James seemed to be confused by this statement, but he WAS James, after all. He was still very new to the goings-on at PCA. Michael and Lola, however, were unfazed.

"You interrupted my show for that?" Michael said. Lola smacked him again. He grumbled, but nonetheless sent an apologetic look Zoey's way. "...sorry."

"Everyone knows that Logan and Quinn like each other." Lola said patiently.

James looked between the two girls. "Um, I didn't."

Lola looked at him for a moment.

"Yes, well, you're you." she said. James didn't know what to make of this.

"Guys, I'm not talking about LIKE." Zoey said, throwing herself in between Lola and James on the purple couch. The last thing she wanted was a fight between her best friend and her boyfriend. "I'm talking about LOVE."

"Like the way you love me, right?" James said. Zoey looked at him.

"Um, yeah." she said hesitantly.

"How do you know it's love?" Lola asked.

Zoey put her computer down on the coffee table and opened up her e-mail. "Well, since I was late to World Civ this morning, I didn't get a chance to check my e-mail until­--"

"Can we sum this up?" Michael asked with an impatient glance at the muted television. Lola hit him again. "Ow!"

Zoey continued like he hadn't spoken. "Until I got back to the dorm this afternoon. Quinn's got another one of her migraines, by the way."

Lola grimaced to show her sympathy. "Poor thing."

Michael nodded to this.

"Anyways, I had an e-mail from Chase." Zoey said. "I mean, it's not a surprise, since I always do--"

"What do you mean by that?" James asked.

"Huh?" Zoey said.

"You said you 'always' have an e-mail from Chase." James told her.

"What?" Zoey said. She gave him a bewildered look. "That's not important! Look at this e-mail!"

Michael and Lola leaned in to read it, but James got up and left without a word. Zoey groaned and followed him, calling over her shoulder that she'd be back in a minute.

The two on the couch hardly heard, already engrossed in Chase's e-mail.

_Hey Zoe,_

_How're you today? I hope the weather's nice, since all I seem to be getting is more grey skies..._

_I just got the strangest call. From Logan. I don't know when you're getting this, but he called me today at nearly three in the morning. For you, not for me. He was really confused and upset; you know, at his most vulnerable? I know how hard that is to believe; Logan _admitting_ he's vulerable._

_Well, shocker! He wanted my help. Please, hold back your gasps of shock, horror and confusion._

_So, I did what any responsible young man would do. I gave him advice I knew he wouldn't follow and turned to the person most likely to... intervene in this type of situation. Zoey, I know you would never meddle in Logan's life, so I'm asking that you show this e-mail to Lola. :D_

_Logan loves Quinn. Simple as that. He's in love with her. He called me asking for advice and I told him the absolute truth. And then I told him that he'd better deal with it, or else he'll end up like me; in ole Britannia without a paddle. (Trust me, if I had one, I'd be back at PCA by now.)_

_Thankfully, I know Mr. Reese rather well (Dear god, I'm starting to sound like one of them!), and I'm sure that he won't make a move until he's sure_ _that Quinn won't turn him down. And considering what happened between him and Quinn yesterday, that day may never come._

_So, I'm sure Lola's reading this by now. Probably Michael, too. Hi, guys! How are you?_

_The reason I asked for you guys to read this is... I want you to do something about Logan and Quinn. I know that Logan won't tell her anything until he's got some sort of sign that Quinn feels the same. Now, we all know she does, but he doesn't. And he won't believe that she loves him until he hears it from her mouth._

_So I want you to do something about it. Give these two love birds a couple weeks to sort things out on their own. If they don't, start meddling. Don't let them know what you're doing, and, for the love of god, do it gently._

_I've got class to get to, but I want updates on the situation._

_Loving all y'alls,  
Chase :D_

Michael and Lola traded looks. They had known that Logan and Quinn had been feeling sparks, but this was definately news.

"Love?" Lola said softly, looking intently at Michael. He tried to ignore her wide, slightly romance-tinged eyes. He knew she was thinking of gooey love stories, in which no one's hair moved and everyone was pretty. "They're in love?"

"Th-that's bad," Michael said. He felt extremely uncomfortable. "If this becomes a whole Chase/Zoey-type situation, I don't think I'll be able to handle it."

Lola made a sour face. "Don't even remind me of that. Those two did not pass through Denialville. They didn't even visit for a bit and come back with souveniers. The townsfolk took one look at them and immediatly made them king and queen."

"And erected statues in their honor." Michael added. Lola grinned and let loose a small giggle. Michael chuckled a bit before an awkward silence wedged its way between them. He was still trying to find a way to break that silence when Zoey came back, looking slightly annoyed.

"So, what'd you think?" she asked, pasting on a smile. Her conversation with James had obviously not gone well. "I'd say that the evidence is concrete enough. We have testament from Chase and, by extention, Logan."

"I hate to say this," Michael said. "But you're right. If Chase could figure this out, it's gotta be simple."

"Hey!" Zoey said. "Just because he's not here to defend himself--"

"No, Zoey," Lola said quickly. "He wasn't saying it to be... too mean... He meant that it took Chase long enough to figure out how you felt about him."

Zoey thought about this, then conceded it was true. But something struck her as odd. "How do you know what Michael meant?"

"I've known him for nearly as long as you have!" Lola said. Michael nodded.

Zoey shrugged and took up her PearWorks computer. She left the lounge and Lola, at long last, un-muted the TV. Michael watched happily for a few moments, until he realized that the credits were rolling on his show.

"Aw, man!" he grumbled. "It was a new episode, too!"

"Catch it on NewTube," Lola said, reaching into the previously unnoticed bowl of foodstuffs in Michael's lap.

**Don't yell and scream! This isn't the end! I've just got a lot on my plate, including a new obsession with an AMAZING animation studio in Japan. So, don't expect updates TOO too often. Check out my profile periodically for news on this story. I've got a section devoted to updates** **on that situation now. I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving, and maybe I'll see about a Christmas present for you, too.**

**HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!  
Poet on the Run**


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